


Restart?

by isotoperuption



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Family, Family Issues, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isotoperuption/pseuds/isotoperuption
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another fight, another school. It's the same damn song skipping over and over, maybe what Dave needs is a restart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Will introduce more canon characters as it progresses.
> 
> Homestuck belongs to Andrew Hussie

It's barely after lunch, kids are leaving the cafeteria to their other classes all talking amongst themselves. But not one kid, the kid with the shades and the weird family, the kid who always seems to get caught up in fights at school, the kid that the office hates to deal with and dealing with his family. Dave Strider is almost proudly sitting in the office waiting for Bro to pick him up, sure he'd gotten into another fight but he didn't pick it. He just was the victor in both word and physical altercation. 

"Stop looking so smug Mister Strider, this is the last fight you'll ever get in here." The receptionist looked annoyed with his very presence. The sunglasses had been the first issue and his eldest brother had floated in the office with a magical doctor's note that Dave had to wear them at all times during the day and weeks after he'd been in there for fights.

The 13 year old did not reply but instead checked his phone for any new mail or messages on pesterchum. A little 1 flashed up next to Dirk's name, it was unusual for Dirk to send him a message this early in the day so it had probably been important.

TT: I heard you got into another fight at school.  
TT: Who started it?  
TG: do I ever fucking start them  
TT: Just asking.  
TG: howd you even find out about it  
TT: School called me when Bro didn't answer his phone after 4 tries.  
TG: shouldnt you be in engineering right now  
TT: I should, but yet here I am talking to you.  
TG: just go to your fucking class you ass  
TT: So what'd they do this time?  
TT: Suspension again?  
TG: nah man pretty sure its permanent this time  
TG: maybe ill luck out and get to go to college early too  
TG: got that old strider brilliance gene that activates around this time  
TG: ill see you at home

\--turntechGodhead [TG] has changed their status to OFFLINE--

At least that's what Dave told himself, after Dirk was the second Strider to graduate highschool early he was convinced that Striders possessed some sort of hidden brilliance that reared it's head like a majestic beast to outshine everyone else. He was just waiting for the time for everyone to realise it, in the meantime he spent his time in school skating through classes and writing raps. 

Today's fight that he had not picked involved a guy making a comment that the Strider family was full of freaks in sunglasses. Of course Dave had delivered a sick burn alluding to his sister's sexual activities, what he hadn't counted on was the kid attempting to punch him. Thanks to living at home with two older brothers and near constant strifing, most of which was a surprise he was able to dodge the punch and deliver a hasty response. To which the teacher automatically hauled them both off to the office and by some unseen force was blamed for the entire event happening.

"Mister Strider do you know how many fights your brother has been in in the past three weeks?" The principal's voice was sharp, the woman looked like a crow. Sharp nose and beady dark eyes. "I'll have you know that this behaviour is unacceptable and we will no longer tolerate his behaviour, we have tried everything and this isn't the first school that has had him removed. We are concerned about his home environment and have called the state child services, you'll be receiving a visit shortly."

He tuned out the rest of the conversation and from Bro's folded arms Dave could tell that the eldest Strider had tuned out the hag as well. When she finally left the reception area back to her office Bro gave Dave a thumb toward the door. Both walked in silence to the crappy looking VW beetle parked in the front visitor's lot, once inside the car with doors open to air out the texas heat that had collected inside.

"So you want to tell me what's going on little man?" You could never tell if Bro was angry or not, he had a permanent calm demeanor that was more unnerving than anyone ever getting angry.

"I didn't start it if that's what you mean." Dave stretched out avoiding touching bare flesh on the plastic pieces that would be hotter than the sun at this point. "Someone started talking shit about us and I responded and then he responded with a fist."

Once the air temperature had come down to semi acceptable levels, doors were shut and the AC was cranked high. It was the only thing worth really putting money into this car, Texas summer made going anywhere unbearable.

"I can't really blame you. You reacted." Bro shrugged, he supposed he was partially to blame for Dave's lightning reflexes when it came to strifing. "But we've now got to deal with the state at this point."

"They'll send some old catholic woman who'll get sick of dealing with us and brush it off." Dave folded his arms, they'd had social workers when neighbors learned of their unique living situation. 

"Maybe, but we need to start looking for another school." And that was the end of the conversation about the fight for the rest of the day with Bro. It was one thing to have to deal with regular people and another to deal with Striders, more than likely he'd get jumped as soon as he got in the apartment. 

The ride home was filled with a radio station that played all the ironic music that they both could tolerate and the elevator up was pretty silent except for the annoying music they piped through there.

"We should get Dirk to sabotage the speaker." Dave commented leaning against a wall. He didn't want to get too comfortable, as soon as the door would open on their floor it would be a strife. He could feel it in the air or maybe that was just the AC struggling to keep the little box cooled.

The doors opened and they both exited, nothing happened yet and Dave casted a glance from behind his matching shades to Bro. Two more doors passed as their walking speed slowed to a halt, the keys were in the lock and then in a split second as soon as the door was barely open Bro had already hurtled Lil' Cal at Dave.

The strife continued into the living room until Dave was chucked onto the couch tangled up in Cal's long limbs.

"I've got to get back to work, Dirk should be home before me. Try to not wreck the place." There was a little nod and with a flash Bro was gone from the apartment, he barely heard his backpack hit the back of the couch with a thump and the front door latch close.

Dave filled the rest of his day with screwing around with some music samples, working on comics for the rest of the week and reading comments left under them. There weren't a lot of reader of the genius that was Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, but the ones who read it seemed to get it for the most part. 

He'd barely taken his headphones off at the slightest sound of someone moving around in the living room when his door was flung open and a smuppet was hurtled at him. It was an easy dodge until another hail of big nosed puppets were chucked in his direction, Dirk was home. 

The strife moved from his room to Dirk's room, to the living room and then back to Dave's room. It ended when both shitty katanas they'd scooped up from the living room storage cube broke.

"So how was your day?" Dirk sat down and caught his breath.

"Fucking amazing, except the music portion of my day." Dave fell back into his chair.

"So what's the deal with school? You didn't give me anything to work with before you rage quit Pesterchum."

"It's permanent I guess and apparently Texas is sending another social worker over." Dave shrugged, it would go the same as the first social worker. They'd made things look as normal as they could and just sat there snarking at each other until she'd gotten sick of it. 

"Shit just for a fight?" Dirk ran a hand through his pale blonde hair.

"Guess getting kicked out of two schools in a year is worth it." Dave kicked a smuppet away that appeared to be staring at him. "It's not my fault people can't handle me."

Dirk shrugged and adjusted the shades on his face, same style as the eldest and youngest. "So what was that about the Strider brilliance gene you were on about earlier?"

"Bro graduated early and didn't need college, you graduated early and you're in the top of all your classes. I'm just waiting for it to kick in with me, I already sail through all of the classes-"

"But you just have shitty people skills." Dirk interjected and received a scowl from his younger brother.

"I'm just selective on who I grace a friendly attitude with."

"Sure that makes total sense, alienate everyone else around you." Dirk gave up and began to exit the room to go take one of his legendary infinite showers. "Bro left a note about us making dinner, apparently he's going to be late tonight. What do you want?"

"Pizza sounds good in my book." Dave was already putting on headphones.

And that was the last time Dirk spoke of the incident at school for the day, that was the nice thing about his brothers. Things didn't hang over everyone once it was talked about, you just moved on with your life and rolled with life's punches in the standard Strider cool style.

The next couple days would provide someone to dig up what was already rolled past unfortunately. It would be a showdown of Strider cool versus the state of Texas.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They tried to fight the law, but the law didn't want to fight. Instead the law handed Dave a reset button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, mind you my interpretation of child services stems back from when my parents fostered kids and I remember being interviewed a lot. So if I've dicked something up, I'm sorry.

The next day comes and the phone is suspiciously quiet all day. For a while Dave considered the fact that the state might have just given up on them, content with this idea he finds a little inspiration for his music. After feeling confident with some of his work the craving for apple juice with chips and salsa badgered him into raiding the kitchen and setting up his snack in the living room.

Bro was flopped on the couch clicking through channels, Dirk on the floor quietly grumbling about his project which looked like something from a horror movie where machines enslave humanity. In fact Dave was pretty sure Dirk would be the one to invent a machine to do that by mistake.

"Which salsa is that?" Bro picked up his head from the couch.

"Satan's asshole." Dave knocked a smuppet off the couch to sit down.

"Oh good I needed something to burn my taste buds clean off." Dirk sighed leaning back to grab a chip and the jar. Before Dave could argue about that the phone rang, the Strider family froze and waited to see if it'd ring again, it did and this time Bro scooped it off the table before a third ring.

The younger two exchanged glances behind pointed shades and then looked to the older one as he hung up with a 'see you in a few days'.

"You mean they actually give a shit?" Dave was the first one out of the gate.

"I would have thought we terrorised the last one to the point of just writing us off." Dirk got his chip finally and dipped it in the salsa and then shoved it in his mouth, Dave hadn't been joking this was on level with Satan's asshole.

"You know what that means, everyone's shit gets tucked away in their rooms we deal with whatever is thrown at us we deal with it together." Bro delegated out the usual game plan whenever their family felt threatened, deal with it together. Sure they strifed and spent plenty of time snarking at each other, but that's what they did. They were Striders, this was the Strider way of dealing with things.

The next day passed with a sudden deep clean of the apartment, generally everyone kept the greater portion of their stuff in their rooms but some things tended to leak out into the common areas. Traps were disarmed throughout the apartment, though Dave forgot half of where his were stashed and tripped them almost in a stunning dance of flailing. Bro had a laugh over it and collected the ammunition he'd used of several pairs of dirty socks, it had explained the sudden drop in the sock pool they all shared.

By the time the big day came the apartment was trap free, clean and devoid of all puppets. Except for Lil' Cal, the dude was family too and would be present for all family matters that required absolute unity. There was an awkward silence as they had laid themselves out around the room trying to find something on the tv that all three would agree to, but that never came as the surfing and general sounds of annoyance to the programming came to a halt when the door buzzer sounded.

The worker on the other line seemed younger than the last one, she sounded very new and like she still had hope for the world. Obviously she'd not seen the hell pits that was social services yet, both Dave and Dirk quietly agreed to annoy her out of the apartment. Get another worker to sweep them under the rug and leave them alone.

She was fairly quick with getting up to the apartment and when let in didn't seem to look suspicious about the overly clean place. Dirk had worried briefly that every thing would seem to sterile but they had needed to clean anyways just to find the traps laid for each other.

Dirk scrunched an eye at her while she was introducing herself to Bro, she didn't seem like the last one. She was younger and didn't have the same boring skirt suit that the last one did, either she was attempting to put them at ease with a more modern approach or clearly the state was hiring just anyone. He could see Dave drawing the same silent conclusion and then glanced up to see her approaching the living area with Bro in tow.

"I'm Ella, you must be Dirk and Dave." She had a smile that almost was overly sweet, almost to the point of giving him diabetes. "Now I know I'm not the first one here so I'll try and not sugar coat all of this."

"Please sit and let's get this over with then." Bro gestured to an empty chair, if she was going to get down to business then so could they.

"Alrighty according to my file on your family, it's the three of you and has been this way forever right?" Bored nods confirmed this, no wonder the last lady had given up. It was clear she was invading their space. "And the first time was because of your living situation and now this time is because Dave has gotten kicked out of two schools in the course of a year."

"I didn't start the fights." Dave huffed from his chair, Dirk gave him a flick in the ear.

"It's never stated that you did, so one can assume you just simply reacted." She crossed her ankles and waited a beat before continuing. "Which lead school systems to believe that there was a problem at home because you reacted in a violent manner."

Dirk arched an eyebrow, she wasn't making any outrageous assumptions. They were all logical and straightforward, he had to give her that for not making any assumptions about their home life.

"Now if you don't mind I'd like to talk to each of you separately and maybe figure out what's going on here so that you can get on with your lives." She could feel Dave's stare boring into her from behind his set of pointed shades. 

"I can't argue with that." Bro shrugged, she was good. But he cast a quick glance around to the younger brothers with a 'do not start shit' look. Clearly she was different from the last one who quoted the bible every other breath. "Take your pick, we're not picky."

"If you want I can start with Dave and work my way up the chain here." She tried to smile, but the room felt uneasy.

"That's cool." Dave shrugged and remained firmly bolted to his chair across from her.

As soon as the other brothers departed to the kitchen, she adjusted her sitting position and flopped open a notebook in her folder. Pen clicked open and readied herself for anything, a moment passed with neither of them saying anything.

"Aren't you supposed to ask questions or some shit?" Dave slumped into his chair.

"You seemed fine on piping up early I figured you had more to say in your defense." She shrugged and made a note. "How about you tell me about your brothers?"

"They're pretty cool, Dirk is a genius with machines and Bro tends to just be good at whatever he wants to do." 

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What are you good at?" She leaned back in the chair feeling a lump of something under the back cushion and reaching around pulling a smuppet that had been missed in the clean sweep. She squinted at it for a half second and set it on the arm of her chair and returned her pen to the paper.

"I make some pretty sick mixes, I write my own rap. I'm pretty good at str-" He stopped for a moment, not the best direction to go. Now was not the time to brag about himself. "strange abstract photography."

'Good save Strider' A mental pat on the back and his cool regained.

"From everything else you seem to be good in all of your classes, just a lot of 'application' problems." She did the finger quotes, who the hell did finger quotes any more? Or was she doing them ironically? Dave couldn't tell at this point, Bro was hard to read, but this chick was just all over.

"I get the classes, the work is boring though." He shrugged again. 

She made a few other notes, he was keeping her at arm's length. Clearly he had a hard time finding people that he enjoyed keeping company with. She fell quiet as she went down her checklist of things to ask about and look for, a lot of this didn't apply to him or their family. She hated it when schools wasted her and the state's time, she must have fallen quiet for too long when Dave asked a question.

"Why do you do any of this anyways?" He waved his hand around the room. 

"Haven't gotten my masters in psychology yet, I plan to be a therapist in the future."

"So you can listen to people's bullshit all day?"

"And maybe help them through that bullshit." She responded without blinking. She'd reacted almost the same way when Dave saw the punch coming, she not only dodged it but fired back in retaliation. "Would you say that you're happy?"

"Happy as the sun on the goddamn raisin bran box, couldn't be any happier with my life." His tone was flat, but it had an edge of sincerity that he hoped would satisfy her.

She made a few more notes and read them over a couple of times, she really did hate it when schools wasted her time.

"Alrighty then, that's all I need from you Dave. You're free to go for a bit." She drew a line across the paper and lettered 'Dirk' under it. 

"Great I'll go get boy wonder." Dave hopped off the chair and made way for the kitchen. There was a minute pause with some hushed tones in the kitchen and Dirk materialised almost out of nowhere, the initial startle wore off and she adjusted her position again to face Dirk who'd picked the couch rather than be confrontational across the coffee table like Dave had been.

"That was suprisingly short." Dirk commented. "Last time we did personal interviews Dave took the longest."

"I tend to not beat around the bush, I know when people don't want me around and it's very clear that all three of you do not want me here." She leaned back and avoided knocking the odd plush off the chair.

"You're different than the last one." He was going to play it cool, keep her on her toes.

"Technically I've been assigned to your family since the last person that attempted to do this." She made a note and paused. "But aside from the occasional school calling us about Dave nothing would have indicated anything is wrong, we have limited resources and y'all weren't a red priority until now."

"Fair enough so let's get this going, Yes I'm happy. Dave is a rad little brother, life is sunshine and puppies and I have a robotic arm to build." He rattled off what he considered answers to standard questions. He did have that arm to finish and hand in by the end of the week.

"College life hard on you?" She scribbled down his answers to the standard questions, making notes about the tone and attitude. A little frowny face dotted the end of an observation 'I am clearly invading upon a close family.'

"Not any more stress than anyone else." A shrug, he never thought of those challenges being stressful. 

"Did you know that Dave calls you 'Boy Wonder'?" 

"Kid thinks all of the Striders are destined for higher callings when in reality we just got lucky." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, Dave really needed to stop putting all of them on pedestals which included himself. They did things differently, they weren't better than anyone else, just different.

"Do you think Dave has a problem?" She decided to make this one short as well.

"I think he has a problem adapting to people that aren't us, we're all that he knows and we annoy the hell out of each other from time to time. But that's all there is, just family. It wouldn't kill him to branch out a little." Dirk had always stated that was the problem with Dave, he spent too much time keeping people that weren't family at bay and even then he kept a certain composure around his family. "He has no mid switch, it's either cool or hot headed."

More notes were scribbled, the school had definitely wasted her time. What Dave needed was a change of pace and something to pique his interest. 

"I have all I need from you, thanks if you can grab your older brother I can get out of your hair." She finished a note to have words with the principal of that school.

"They were right, you do keep this short and to the point." Another Strider brother materialised out of nowhere, this time it didn't scare her as much.

"It's painfully clear that the woman in charge is completely off her rocker if she thinks it's a home problem." Ella wrinkled her nose. "You can all breathe easy, no one is taking anyone anywhere."

Bro kept his neutral expression, they had won by some weird happening. This was good news, that meant things could go back to the way they were as soon as Dave was enrolled in another school.

"Then what's the point of this then?"

"A word of advice, the next school you put Dave in try an art school. It would probably do him a world of good." She wrote a name and a number on a piece of paper. "If you decide to go for another private school, I know the first one didn't work out that well. But this school did wonders for my younger sister, everyone learns different and everyone has something that they're good at. It's very apparent when I look at the difference between Dirk and Dave, so if you're interested give them a call."

She tore the information from the corner and handed it to the eldest brother, he did a quick read over the name of the school, the headmaster and number.

"We don't have to worry about the state coming back then?"

"Not unless you give us reason to, it'd have to be fairly catastrophic like meteors raining down on Texas level of catastrophe." She closed the folder and stood up. "Seriously think about the school, Dave is a smart kid and you know it. Think of this as a reset button, school like that is a whole new animal."

She left it at that, said her goodbyes and left three brothers at the kitchen table with the slip of paper in the middle of the table.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave meets some new faces and attempts to try harder at being social.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have tried to keep people in character as best as I can. I also am largely basing this off of my own high school which had a culinary program.

Dirk offered to skip his English and first robotics lab to come with Dave to get officially signed into the school suggested by Ella, there was a lot of declining and general huffing about making a fuss over something as minor as this. 

"You made your point, I'm going to go listen to someone's awful interpretation of Brave New World." Dirk put on a pout that almost looked real, he really didn't enjoy that English class at all. "Try not to pick any fights prior to enrolling and y'know get to know someone."

Dave waved a hand a Dirk to go away as he collected his messenger bag, rather than drag the older backpack that was still stuffed with his previous school's stuff he felt like a new slate would be a lot better. He would have to try a little harder, Bro made this very apparent while Dirk hogged the shower.

"So like I said, try a little harder. You've just got to find your niche and you'll be fine." Bro concluded as they pulled into the parking lot, it was one of the few times he took on the parenting tone. It left Dave wondering where he picked up the tone, but not wondering enough to ask questions. 

"Yeah, yeah new slate. I got it." He sighed and adjusted the shades on his face. "It certainly looks like an art school." 

The building was brick and had rather extravagant windows sitting over the main doors, a banner hung on the front announcing an upcoming festival that the school was hosting. He had a feeling this sort of thing would be common in an art school but that probably meant half days and better food during that time, something he could always go for.

The office was just as fancy as the outside, much nicer than he previous schools but this was a private school that had better funding. This thought caused Dave to catch Bro's glance and raised his eyebrows, it was a clear question of 'how the fuck are we affording this'. Bro patted his shoulder and just steered him to a chair, which he was not sitting in long.

"You must be the Striders, we've been expecting you just come on in." the office lady looked somewhat familiar, she looked similar to one of Dirk's friends that came over from time to time. "You'll be meeting with the chairman down there."

A pointing finger drew attention to an office past the front desk, the door was opening and the sound of someone laughing could be heard. The laughter belong to a bald headed man sporting a bright green shirt who was finishing up a conversation on the phone when the brothers walked in.

"Marty, I'll call you back about that offer but keep my name on it. I think it'll do the school good." He hung up and stood to meet them. "Welcome welcome, I apologise for making you wait but let's get started. A great chairman doesn't keep people waiting. I'm chairman Scotts, but most people just call me Doc here."

He turned and pulled a file from a side desk with 'STRIDER, DAVE' scrawled on the front in semi neat handwriting. Dave shifted the bag off his shoulder and sat down next to Bro, if he was nervous no one could tell beyond the straight face he had perfected from studying Bro's perma-calm. 

"Now I understand you've had a rough year and we're hopefully going to change that here." He shuffled through the paperwork noting the letter that Ella had written concerning Dave. It detailed that he was a smart kid that was getting shafted by the public school system and that given the right environment would do quite well. "We want to offer you a better chance and hope that you can be comfortable here."

It was a good start, Bro almost cracked a smile as the paperwork was being handed to him and signed. They made comments back and forth about the arts and music, the chairman seemed really impressed with both Striders for their taste in music and understanding of it.

"Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, we can go and get a tour of the place so you'll have a vague idea of where you'll be going and I can introduce you to some people who can help you find things." When the chairman stood they did too and followed him out of the office into the school. Classes had just finished changing so the halls were empty, the lockers were decorated with paper and foam cut outs. Ranging from silly interpretations of movies or people to shrines to celebrities, one featuring Nicholas Cage caused a subtle eye roll. He wasn't sure if the person was being ironic or actually loved Cage.

"Most everything is based around arts, everyone has their own way of learning. Our math classes usually base things in music and deconstructing art pieces, we have actual art classes ranging from painting to sculpting but you'll be in a few basic classes until the next term." He adjusted his tie and pointed to a room which had music flowing out in a rather disjointed way. "I was told you're good at music and spoken word, you'll find that this class will a fun one."

His smile was wide as he opened the door to a group of kids practicing, a girl stood with a bass tapping her foot along with the beat. She noticed the chairman and guests and waved to them and then caught the teacher's attention.

"Miss! Doc is here." She took the bass off her shoulders and set it into a stand mounted on the wall. Her long dark hair bounced with her as she came to the door to greet them.

"This is Jade Harley, she's our rep for this class and in charge of the music portion of the festival coming up." A gesture was made toward the striders. "This is Dave and his older brother, Dave will be joining our school after today."

"Hi Dave, do you play an instrument?" She was a happy bubbly girl and a fast unseen tap against his shoulder prompted him into social mode.

"I'm more of a technical turntable sort of guy." He remarked looking around the room, no turntables but maybe this class wasn't as straightforward as it appeared.

"Oh that's great, we could use a mixer for the festival." She started and then slowed down realising what she was insinuating. "I mean if you want to help, you don't have to."

"Yeah I can help, it'll be cool." There was the standard Strider charm. "So what sort of tunes do you put out here?"

"Oh anything we think of, we like to vote on the music we play so it can range from Rose's really long pieces to movie theme mashups." Jade was thrilled that someone was interested in what she viewed as the less glamorous side of the festival.

"My mash ups are the best!" A dark hair kid with glasses called out, he swung his legs over the piano bench and waved. "I'm John, the proud creator of the last mash up."

"Dave, proud creator of the sickest rhymes you'll ever hear." Dave gave a short wave, John continued on about mash ups until Jade nudged him.

"Speaking of which, we still have to discuss the set for the festival with the rest of the class." She turned to focus John. "We're the only class who doesn't have a set that's solid."

"Yeah yeah, I'm just bummed my con air set got rejected." He sighed, Nitram had been very outspoken against having to play anything from that movie. "So I'll see you in class tomorrow Dave."

The class got under way leaving the three out in the hall again to venture other places, the lunch room and the culinary studio where a kid with crazy hair was tossing things into a bowl without measuring. He was promised that food was good and that Gamzee did know what he was doing, the words 'special method' were added to Gamzee's reasoning.

The tour ended with a simple arts class where people had sketchbooks open and all working on individual projects. A wave in the windowed prompted a teacher to come and introduce themselves to the Striders. Dave's head was already spinning from all the names and places he was trying to commit to memory and another teacher was just filed away in the 'maybe important' bin in his mind.

"I wanted to introduce you to your guide last and then I'll have a packet for you to take home to try and make this entire process a bit easier." Doc gave a smile, he had tried to get a smile out of Dave all morning but it hadn't stuck yet. "Mr. Noir would you let me borrow Karkat for a few minutes?"

The teacher with a gravelly voice made an 'oi' noise and announced that Mister Vantas was required at the door. A short hispanic kid looked annoyed, but stowed his charcoal in a tray and made his way over to the door wiping off his hands on a grubby towel stuffed into his jeans.

"What did I do now?" The tone the kid used was ignored by both the teacher and Doc.

"I'd like to introduce you to your new mission, Dave is new and requires your expert knowledge." Doc grinned and a black smudge on Karkat's face appeared while he quietly muttered in spanish and rubbed his face. Dave didn't know a lot of spanish, but he was pretty sure what he heard was a long string of swearing.

"Right right, Karkat Vantas. Nice to meet you, I will see you bright and early at the doors. I will wait until 7:15 before I just leave you to the wolves." Karkat sounded strained trying to make this conversation as quick as he could. "I have things to do before the period ends and I refuse to sit and stare at that drawing any longer than I have to."

"Of course, thank you for your time." Doc waved as Karkat returned to the chair he'd been verbally dragged from.

"Don't mind Vantas, he's a crabby little pansy sometimes." Noir ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "But no one knows the place better than him, you're on my roster so you'll have stuff for this class tomorrow. Doc I gotta get back to minding the crowd."

With the tour done and a packet shoved into the messenger containing class lists, supplies needed and a map of the entire school they were once again at the entrance.

"So?"

"I'll make due with this." Was Dave's reply, sure there were people he could probably stand here. No one had asked awkward questions, no one had actually been nosey for a change. People were focused with their own things, they'd seemed nice enough but then again that's how it started at school number 2. He did have to wonder though what that Vantas kid's problem was, no one seemed to pay much attention to an attitude that would have gotten him detention.

Tomorrow would prove an interesting and informative day, preceded by a mass of bus changes to get to the new school and having to beat Dirk to the shower.


End file.
